ROH show names are to the left of the date and in parenthesis. The name I would call the show is to the right of the date and in quotation marks and bolded, along with an explanation and some of my philosophy on show-naming.

Feel free to add your own ideas!

2011
(Revolution: USA)- 5/6- The true beginning of the terrible names. Some people really disliked the first year or so of the Pearce era, but I thought those were usually just generic as opposed to actively being bad. Speaking of generic names, I’d call this show “Showdown in Motown II.” ROH has used "Motor City Madness" often enough for a generic show name in the Detroit area so I’d rather not go back to that well yet again, and I also like the idea of this being a “II” show because its main event was the much-anticipated rematch between the between the Kings of Wrestling and the American Wolves.

(Revolution: Canada)- 5/7- I know it’s kind of silly, but I’d call this show “Danger.” It had the new “Double Danger Scramble” gimmick match, Steve Corino was in danger of falling off the wagon in his “rehab” from being a terrible person, and both the world and tag team titles were in serious danger in their defenses on this show. Plus, I can’t really think of anything better.

(Supercard of Honor VI)- 5/21- keep it

(Best in the World 2011)- 6/26- PERFECT for both a big show that is supposed to symbolize what ROH is and also perfect for the build-up to the title matches (especially the main event).

(Tag Team Turmoil 2011)- 7/8- I guess the 2011 was there because they thought it was going to be an annual thing that never turned out. In retrospect this would have made a good “Tag Wars 2011,” but in their position at the time, I’d have gone with Tag Team Turmoil 2011 as well.

(No Escape)- 7/9- GREAT name. It fit with the cage match main event, the “partners are handcuffed at ringside” matches, and more subtly with poor Eddie Edwards' conundrum during the finish of his match.

(Death Before Dishonor IX)- 9/17- Keep it. Not only was this a huge show, but it definitely felt like ANX in particular were fighting with this very mantra in mind during the main event of this show.

(Gateway to Honor)- 11/6- a silly geographically-based name that really doesn’t make any sense when you think about it. What does fit well here is the title that ROH would use in a few months “Rise and Prove” as both ANX and Future Shock rose to the occasion and proved that they belonged in the top tier of tag teams in ROH against much better-established opponents. Also, there was a Proving Ground match.

(Survival of the Fittest 2011)- 11/18- obvious keep

(Glory By Honor X)- 11/19- another keep, even though the build to the show was a bit disappointing for a Glory By Honor.

(Southern Defiance)- 12/3- "Honor Rumble"- that was the main event of an otherwise uneventful show.

(Northern Aggression)- 12/4- "Testing The Limit II" (the main event was a two-hour time limit match they were trying to build as the longest match in modern pro wrestling history). I would always do “sequel” names where they fit (either thematically or quality reputation-wise) as it both ties into the rich history of the promotion and also saves good ideas for names, as there really truly are only a finite amount of good ones.
There’s only one thing worse than a generic name, and that’s a stupid one. What do “Southern Defiance” and “Northern Aggression” have to do with anything? The shows are in the Carolinas? So what? And shouldn’t it be “Northern Defiance” and “Southern Aggression”? THEY were the ones who started the war by shelling Fort Sumter.

(Final Battle 2011)- 12/23- It’s Final Battle. Keep it.

2012
(The Homecoming 2012)- 1/20- A perfectly fine name for ROH’s first show in its birthplace of Philadelphia in over fifteen months. I also liked the switch to the year number for this one because let’s face it: “The Homecoming III” sounds a little silly.

(Underground)- 1/21- As dull and generic as this name is, I kind of like it. I haven’t watched the show in a long time, but from what I remember, the venue did seem to have a “basement-esque” feel to it. The name Underground was also a bit of playing to the fans who around this time had started to complain that the company had lost its indy feel, and with this show being entirely bonus content in the Rise and Prove DVD, the name fit from that standpoint as well.

(Rise & Prove)- 2/17- “Proving Ground 2012”- The name they chose was a perfectly fine generic name for a one-night tournament, especially of teams who had not yet proven themselves in ROH. It also had BJ Whitmer returning to ROH for the first time in four years, looking to prove that he still had what it takes to compete in ROH, and he was doing so in a Proving Ground match on it, and it was also ROH’s first show in Cincinnati, where they were looking to prove themselves to the fans. The only reason I would change the name is to save the “Rise and Prove” name for the show back in November.

(10th Anniversary Show: Young Wolves Rising)- 3/4- I never liked the taglines on the show names, but other than that, this is fine, so I'd just leave it as the "10th Anniversary Show."

(Showdown in the Sun: Day 1)- 3/30 Generic, but you can’t have a “Supercard of Honor weekend” so this is fine.

(Showdown in the Sun: Day 2)- 3/31- same as above

(Unity)- 4/28- part of a the joint Synergy day of shows with CHIKARA, and it showed the unity of the ROH locker room with the Briscoes, as well as how being a on the same page allowed ANX to defeat the House of Truth, who weren’t on the same page. Also, there were a bunch of other tag matches.

(Rising Above 2012)- 4/29- yeah. This one was lame and generic, but I will admit that I couldn’t think of anything better.

(Border Wars)- 5/12- I’ve always hated “Border Wars” name because there was no real international stuff going on; just guys who happened to be from different countries. Considering that this show had Lance Storm and Fit Finlay wrestling on it, a match between ROH’s two biggest rising stars at the time in Cole vs. Elgin, Ciampa’s undefeated streak being ended, a Fight Without Honor for the tag titles, and what was BY FAR the biggest match ROH had at the time in Kevin Steen vs. Davey Richards for the ROH World Title, I would have gone ahead and just made this the "Supercard of Honor VII" (this was the year we didn’t get an SCOH).

(The Battle of Richmond)- 5/19- Ah yes. The absolute bottom of the barrel of generic names. Considering that this was the first DVD show of Steen’s title reign, “The Nightmare Begins” would have fit better here.

(The Nightmare Begins)- 6/15- While I will admit that “The Nightmare Begins” is a fitting name for any show that marks the beginning of an effort to push Mike Mondo, I would have just called this show “Radio Wars” because let’s be honest: the name is cool in a goofy way, it’s not a name that you’ll ever have the opportunity to use again, and there were no other good names for this show.

(Best in the World 2012: Hostage Crisis)- 6/24- I’d have just called it Best in the World 2012. You’re trying to build a brand for a new top-tier event. Keep it as simple as possible for now.

(LivE Strong)- 6/30- I thought this name was really cool. It referenced both Roddy’s last name and Steen’s tattoo.

(Brew City Beatdown)- 7/14- Generic… but this show was generic, too.

(Boiling Point 2012)- 8/11- Generic, but it fit kind of well, and also continues the legacy of the original Boiling Point show in being disappointing (although at least the original had some great matches on it).

(Caged Hostility)- 9/8- “Caged Rage II”- the same general idea, but I think “rage” does a better job of playing into the idea that Cornette had told Lethal that he was too nice and needed to get meaner (and also calling it “Caged Rage II” will make people look up the original Caged Rage show and buy that, too, which everyone should because it was awesome)

(Death Before Dishonor X: State of Emergency)- 9/15- It’s Death Before Dishonor. Keep the name but ditch the tagline.

(Survival of the Fittest 2012)- 9/22- It’s SOTF. Keep it.

(Killer Instinct)- 10/6- works perfect with the Steen-Lethal build-up for the main event.

(Glory By Honor XI: The Unbreakable Hope)- again, just ditch the tagline.

2013
(The Hunt for Gold)- 1/18- A perfectly fine name for a show where the American Wolves are getting a tag title match.

(Defy or Deny II)- 1/19- It had the Defy or Deny match, so keep it.

(Honor vs. Evil)- 2/16- A cool name that works with the main event.

(11th Anniversary Show)- 3/1- obvious keep

(WAR)- 3/30- Good name for a show built around the ROH vs. SCUM feud, and the name felt absolutely perfect after the way that feud had heated up at the anniversary show.

(Supercard of Honor VII)- 4/5- I guess under my numbering this would be Supercard of Honor VIII, but otherwise an obvious keep.

(Border Wars 2013)- 5/4- as I said above, I’ve always hated the Border Wars name. I would have made this show “Death Before Dishonor XI” because the ROH guys would rather die than allow SCUM to dishonor ROH, and because Adam Cole rejecting Corino’s offer to join the dishonorable SCUM faction would be the last time Cole would be fully honorable before his slow heel turn (the impetus for which was being angry at himself for not taking Corino’s offer for help wining the world title on this show) started.

(Dragon’s Reign)- 5/11- a good name for reDRagon’s first tag title defense in a main event.

(Relentless)- 5/18- generic but inoffensive

(Honor in the Heart of Texas)- 6/1- I know a lot of other people hate this one, but I thought it was a fun name for ROH’s first trip to Texas as a regular (meaning non-WrestleMania weekend) market.

(Live and Let Die)- 6/8- yeah. This name seems like it only existed so that I could see how many Bond references I could cram into my review- which I am thankful for, don’t get me wrong- but I think “Breakout II” would have been a better name for this show as the Cedric vs. Davey match really opened people’s eyes about Cedric’s ability as a singles wrestler similar to the way that the Tyler Black vs. Bryan Danielson match did for Tyler at the original Breakout.

(Best in the World 2013)- 6/22- keep it

(A Night of Hoopla)- 7/11- the most obvious keep of all

(Reclamation: Night 1)- 7/12- I like the idea that this weekend was about reclaiming ROH’s honorable ways which had to be abandoned to fight SCUM, but I think that “Reclaiming Honor: Night 1” would have been a better name. “Reclamation” sounds too much like an episode of a primetime TV drama, and “Reclaiming Honor” would also be a small nod to “Honor Reclaims Boston” which was ROH’s first show in the Boston market (hahahah) after a fourteen month absence, and this show was fourteen months to the day after Steen won the world title and ROH’s honor started to fade.

(All-Star Extravaganza V)- 8/3- keep it. The hallmark of the previous All-Star Extravaganza shows had always been bringing in outside talent, and this show had plenty of that, with Kendrick, London, and the Young Bucks all being brought in, as well as KUSHIDA and Forever Hooligans from New Japan.

(Manhattan Mayhem V)- 8/16 another keeper. This show followed in the footsteps of all of the other Manhattan Mayhem shows by 1) taking place in Manhattan and 2) being TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY AWESOME! Even MIKE MONDO had a great match!

(Road to Greatness: Night 1)- 9/6- My main problem with this weekend’s names is that this show wasn’t actually on the road to the greatness that is winning the ROH World Title so much as it was a rest stop that you didn’t have to go to if you didn’t want to. There were no actual tournament matches on these shows. For this show, main evented by the four men remaining in the tournament facing off in a tag team match, I would have called it “Clash of the Contenders II.”

(Road to Greatness: Night 2)- 9/7- yeah… sometimes you can’t think of anything good no matter how much you rack your brain, in which case it’s best to go with something toponymical and likely alliterative. In this case, I’d go with “Birmingham Brawl.”

(Death Before Dishonor XI)- 9/20- This should have been “Glory By Honor XII” because of the glory of winning the ROH World Title (hopefully in an honorable manner), and because it saves this year’s GBH from being the nothing show that it was.

(A New Dawn)- 9/28- New ROH World Champion, new top heel, first show in a new market… this name sounds pretty perfect to me.

(Charm City Challenge)- 10/5- remember what I said about alliterative toponymical names back in Birmingham? Same applies here.

(Glory By Honor XII: Champions vs. All-Stars)- 10/26- A lot of people (myself included) complained that Glory By Honor, traditionally ROH’s second or third biggest show of the year, felt like an afterthought this year while there was a very big show a week later in Cincinnati called something else. For that reason I’d have this show be “Champions vs. All-Stars 2013” and use Glory By Honor XII for the crowning of the new champion in Philly in September.

(The Golden Dream)- (11/2)- I thought this was a great name for this show. It had a whole bunch of matches that were either title matches or would directly result in someone earning a title match. In fact, only two of the eight matches on the show didn’t have direct title implications.

(Pursuit: Night 1)- 11/15- “Chasing the Dream”- same idea as the “Pursuit” title ROH used, but I think it is a bit more clear, and also plays off of the previous show, “The Golden Dream,” where Jimmy Jacobs earned the world title shot he received at this show.

(Pursuit: Night 2)- 11/16- “Gut Check II” both due to Corino’s attempt to make Jay accept the reality that he isn’t the world champion anymore, and due to Coleman & Alexander’s acceptance of the fact that they aren’t going to win the tag titles, so they should go off on singles careers instead.

(Final Battle 2013)- 12/7- Final Battle is cool and all, but for this one, I was thinking maybe “Hot Bananas” would work a little bit better. Nah. Just kidding. “Hot Bananas” would be an awesome name for a CHIKARA show, though.

2014
(Wrestling’s Finest)- 1/25- “Opportunity.” We have the Top Prospect Tournament Finals where someone will earn a TV Title shot, an actual TV Title match, and the main event where someone will earn a world title shot if they pin Cole. Add to that the fact that an injury to Roddy and travel problems for Paul London meant that Cedric Alexander and Andrew Everett were given a chance to steal the show (and almost did so), and I think the title fits fine. Certainly a lot better than the generic “Wrestling’s Finest.”

(State of the Art)- 2/8- yeah, this name sucked. Do I have any profoundly good suggestions? No. But I think something like “Honor Returns to Texas” would have been a nice play off of the name of their San Antonio debut last year and makes sense with a four-way all-babyface main event and with babyface Adrenaline Rush beating those dastardly cheaters reDRagon to earn a tag title shot.

(12th Anniversary Show)- 2/21- obvious keep.

(Raising the Bar: Night 1)- 3/7- “The Chase” because of the focus on the various world title chases, plus we had a match between top contenders for the TV Title and also a tag title match.

(Raising the Bar: Night 2)- 3/8- “Masters of the Ring”- yeah, it sounds corny, but this show had a Ringmaster’s Challenge on it, and it also plays into both the tag title change and the fact that this was Adam Page’s first night as The Decade’s young boy (obeying his new masters).

(Flyin’ High)- 3/22- keep it. It’s a cool name and it had AJ Styles on it. And I’m sure other guys did cool dives, too.

(Supercard of Honor VIII)- 4/4- keep it, although under my chronology it would be “Supercard of Honor IX”

(Global Wars)- 5/10- keep it.

(War of the Worlds)- 5/17- It’s kind of cool, but I’d have loved for them to use “When Worlds Collide” as a reference to the WCW/New Japan shows of old (and also to have yet another promotion use that name for a show).

(Road to Best in the World: Night 1)- 6/6- “Combat in Carbondale.” It’s not a good name, but at least it makes this show seem important, as opposed to making it seem like a complete and total filler show like “Road to Best in the World” does.

(Road to Best in the World: Night 2)- 6/7- “Fueling The Fire II.” Lots of build for the big show, especially the Cole-Elgin feud. It also has Ciampa’s loss to Adam Cole, which started the fire that led to Ciampa snapping and starting his “dangerous crazy-man” angle.

(Best in the World 2014)- 6/22- keep it. Duh.

(Aftershock)- 7/12- Not profound or anything, but this show definitely dealt with the after-effects of Best in the World, from Elgin winning to the solidification of the Elgin/War Machine unit to the departure of Matt Hardy.

(Summer Hear Tour: Cincinnati)- 7/18- “Thanks Steen Thanks!” is SOOO much better than the horribly generic Summer Heat Tour label, and the Summer Heat Tour label comes off as really dumb when the only DVD with that label on it is this one (the other two shows were TV tapings). “Thanks Steen Thanks!” also calls back to something that ROH has felt like it has been missing since the Pearce Era ended, which is giving the fans the chance to say thank you and goodbye to the wrestlers who have sacrificed so much of themselves for us. There is a reason that shows like Punk: The Final Chapter, Good Times, Great Memories, and Glory By Honor VIII: The Final Countdown are so beloved, and it has nothing to do with the outstanding match quality on all of those shows.

(Field of Honor)- 8/15- Keep it. A fun name that also calls back to the old “Field of Honor” Tournament from 2003.

(All-Star Extravaganza VI)- 9/6- I’d have called this “Glory By Honor XIII” because it was definitely ROH’s biggest show of the fall and it didn’t have the international/outside talent that has been the hallmark of past All-Star Extravaganzas.

(Champions vs. All-Stars)- 10/11- keep it, except tack “2014” onto the end of it to both push it as an annual event and even more importantly, to avoid confusion with “Champions vs. All-Stars” from 2011.

(Survival of the Fittest 2014: Night 1)- 11/7- I don’t like the idea of SOTF being expanded to a two-night tournament, but you could still spin it to make it work (it’s just the finals that you need to be “the fittest” to win, rather than pushing the “two matches in one night” thing), and if that is how they want to book it, then this is obviously the best name for this show.

(Survival of the Fittest 2014: Night 2)- 11/8- see above

(Glory By Honor XIII)- 11/15- “Home is Where the Heat Is”- Of the three wrestlers for whom San Antonio is a sort of home market (ACH, R.D. Evans, & Raymond Rowe), two were used in heat-getting angles, and two of them got titles shots, which the crowd was super-hot for.

(Final Battle 2014)- 12/7- obvious keep.

2015
(Winter Warriors Tour: Dearborn)- 1/30- "Winter Warriors Weekend: Night 1"- I racked my brain and couldn't think of anything better than "Winter Warriors," but it just makes the shows seem a bit more special/unique/whatever than being part of a "tour" of a few different shows over two months.

(Conquest Tour: Milwaukee)- 3/13- holy crap this name was stupid. What are they conquering? Anyway, I'd call this "Champions Challenge II" because that was how they billed the main event which had the tag champs take on the world champ and TV champ. Another possible name could be "The Champs Are Here" referencing both the main event and the return of Samoa Joe.

(Conquest Tour: Chicago)- 3/14- My heart really wants to call this "Dissension II" as a reference to the show where Jacobs and Whitmer officially broke up the first time back in 2006, but that was too small a component of this show to warrant the name, especially as there was really no other dissension on the card. It’s a damn shame that Joe vs. Elgin wasn’t good enough to deserve the whole show being named after it because that would make this so much easier. Instead I think I’ll go with “Instant Reward” as there were two of those silly Instant Reward Proving Ground matches Delirious is so fond of, as well as another match which resulted in a title shot later in the night.

(Supercard of Honor IX)- 3/27- Keep it, although under my chronology it would be “Supercard of Honor X.”

(Conquest Tour: Hopkins)- 4/25- “Out of Time” seems to fit here as there is a big time limit draw in the main event, and if I recall correctly, it came when Kyle was on the verge of victory.

(War of the Worlds 2015: Night 1)- 5/12- keep it

(War of the Worlds 2015: Night 2)- 5/13- keep it

(Global Wars 2015: Night 1)- 5/15- I’d either keep this and make sure that Night 2 (the TV taping the next night) was also out on DVD, or just call this Global Wars 2015 without the “Night 1” because it’s stupid to have a “Night 1” DVD and not have a “Night 2” DVD.

(Road to Best in the World 2015: Amarillo)- 5/29- I can’t think of anything for this one (not my fault! It was a totally unremarkable show), so I’ll go with the old toponymical and alliterative option and call this show “Honor in Amarillo.” Yes, it is terribly bland, but you can pretend it refers to Elgin’s decision to not cheat when he got frustrated and by referring specifically to Amarillo rather than Texas as a whole, we lessen the chances of people confusing it with any other shows since this was ROH’s debut in Amarillo and based on the bad turnout (by ROH standards) and quiet crowd, I’ll be quite surprised if they ever go back so there probably won't be any future Amarillo shows to confuse it with either.

(Road to Best in the World 2015: Oklahoma City)- 5/30- This show’s contribution to the Title vs. Title match they were building to for Best in the World was to have both the world champ and TV champ defend their belts against a guy who won a #1 contendership triple threat match earlier in the evening, so I’d call this show “Anything You Can Do” as in “anything you can do, I can do better” (and it also fits for both any instances of wrestlers cheating as well as Will Ferrara’s great effort against Roddy).

(Road to Best in the World 2015: Collinsville)- 6/5- There really aren't any good names for this show, so I'll call this one "Contention II" to reference Sydal and Delirious putting themselves in contention for a tag title shot, and to reference the main event which featured a tag match involving the champ and the three guys in the #1 contendership match at the upcoming BITW PPV in which neither team function as a team, as the partners were in contention with each other as much as they were with their opponents.

(Road to Best in the World 2015: Nashville)- 6/6- They played up that there was a lot on the line in the main event, depending on who you pinned (shots at the ROH or IWGP tag titles, Jay Briscoe’s streak and a shot at the ROH World Title, or a big win over ROH’s premiere tag team) so between that and TV Title #1 contendership match and the TV Title match itself, I guess that “High Stakes” fits fine here, even if its application to the main event is far from obvious at first (or even third) glance.

(Best in the World 2015)- 6/19- Obvious keep

(Aftershock Tour: Hopkins)- 7/11- This show really had the feel of it just being a night of top-notch professional wrestling. With the exception of the Briscoe/ODB vs. House of Truth match, there were no feud matches on this show at all, so it had a rather serene, chill feel about it. It was just wrestling to watch and enjoy. Part of me wants to call this show something like “Before the Storm” (as in “the calm before the storm) because a couple of guys who were going into either big or heated matches at Death Before Dishonor had matches that were very non-blood-feud matches on this show while it was also Elgin’s last show before heading off to the G1… but then I realized that not only was there one other show (the Vegas show) before the “storm” of DBD, but also that it’s pretty stupid to have the show AFTER your big PPV called “Before The Storm,” so instead I will go with “Back To Basics II.”

(Aftershock Tour: Las Vegas)- 7/17- with the disclaimer that this is the only show on this list that I haven’t actually seen at least a large chunk of, I would call this show “One Night in Vegas” to play off of both the one-night TV Title #1 contendership tournament and also Aries’ (so far) one night return.
(EDIT: have now seen the show and would still use that name).

(Death Before Dishonor XIII) 7/24- obvious keep

Field of Honor 2015- 8/22- obvious keep

(Reloaded Tour: Atlanta)- 8/29- “Gold Rush II” The original Gold Rush had the three champions facing three top guys in a six man tag team main event, plus I can’t think of anything better for this show.

(Reloaded Tour: Dearborn)- 9/11- “Defy or Deny 2015”- well… we can’t call it Defy or Deny III since they did the third Defy or Deny match on TV last year, so I guess we’ll have to switch over to using years. It would be cool to see Defy or Deny as an annual event, but instead of one with a set time like Survival of the Fittest it could just be used whenever it fits into the booking.

(Reloaded Tour: Chicago)- 9/12- “Young Bucks vs. Future Shock”- yeah, I guess I’ll give this match the big honor. It’s a shade below the level I’d want a match to be at for such an honor, but it was also super-highly anticipated, so that factor bumps it up for me.

(All-Star Extravaganza VII)- 9/18- should have been “Glory By Honor XIV” for the same reasons I gave last year.

(Reloaded Tour: California)- 9/25- “Double Duty” because Adam Cole and The Addiction both worked twice.

(Reloaded Tour: Lockport)- 9/26- “Rise And Prove II”- it fits well for the old timers (Stevie Richards and Sumi Sakai) coming back to prove they can still hang, for Matt Jackson getting to show his skills as a singles wrestler, Tim Hughes’ first main roster show, and ACH and Moose both getting the chance to prove themselves as main event singles wrestlers.

(Glory By Honor XIV: Champions vs. All-Stars)- 10/24- I’d just let this be “Champions vs. All-Stars 2015” for the same reasons as last year.

(Survival of the Fittest 2015: Night 1)- 11/13- obvious keep

(Survival of the Fittest 2015: Night 2)- 11/14- obvious keep

(Road to Final Battle)- 12/5- Yeah... these "Road to..." names are terrible and lame. We're going to call this show "Before the Storm" (as in "the calm before the storm") because it was a rather tame show with most guys being far away from their Final Battle opponents here on the last show before Final Battle.

(Final Battle 2015)- 12/18- obvious keep.

2016
(Winter Warriors Tour: Indianapolis)- 1/15- I haven't seen this show yet, but from reading the results posted on the ROH website and looking at some of the things they are calling attention to, I'd say this show should definitely be "Dissension II" (and it even involves BJ Whiter having a break-up, just like the first Dissension did, almost ten years ago to the day).

(Winter Warriors Tour: Duluth)- 1/23- Bullet Club members are challenging for all of ROH’s titles, so I’d call this show “Champions vs. Bullet Club.” It’s a good takeoff on Champions vs. All-Stars, and the fact that the titles wound up being on the line makes the “Champions vs.” part feel all the more important.

(Honor Rising: Night 1)- 2/19- A perfectly fine name, I guess. It sounds kind of like something a Japanese company might name a show, and I’m sure New Japan helped them pick a name they thought would play well.

(Honor Rising: Night 2)- 2/20- Same as above

(14th Anniversary Show)- 2/26- Obvious keep

(14th Anniversary Show TV Tapings)- 2/27- I normally wouldn’t bother with TV tapings but they are putting this one out on DVD. I guess the name is fine, but I don’t like just calling it “TV tapings” because I think there are people who will be disinclined to buy it because they can just find it for free in the website archives or on the net. I’d be happier with calling it 14th Anniversary Show: Night 2 like we did for Global Wars in 2015, but they marketed the PPV the night before without a “Night 1” tag so that wouldn’t do, either. The name I would go with would be “Vegas Uncut” to emphasize that this DVD has the full-length matches, not what was edited down for TV. Also, it sounds kind of cool.

(Conquest Tour: Philadelphia)- 3/12- In looking back at this show, the thing that struck me about it was how much wasn’t resolved on this show. The Page/Gresham vs. Whitmer/Cedric finish left the issues in those two feuds unsolved, the Briscoes and War Machine had their big stare-down after their match, the Bucks ate the pin in their match but the real heat was between the other two teams, Ferrara vs. Daddiego went to a DQ, the heels cheated to win in the reDRagon vs. Strong /Cole match, and Sydal’s loss meant he failed to validate his return run in ROH (or whatever the story was they tried to shoehorn in at the last minute). Therefore, this show gets the name “Unfinished Business.”

(Supercard of Honor X: Night 1)- 4/1- “Supercard” is singular which means you can’t have more than one night of it, so one of these two shows will have to give. Tomorrow night’s show is the one that has blow-offs to feuds that have been building for a while as well as a #1 contendership match. Tonight’s card feels more like just a bunch of marquee match-ups, pretty much all of which delivered. Between that and the World Title match which gave Lio Rush a big opportunity to show his chops, I’d call this show “Showcase” (also, this the biggest wrestling weekend of the year so ROH is trying to show itself off, so it works on that level, too).

(Supercard of Honor X: Night 2)- 4/2- this show has the bigger matches so it gets to be “Supercard of Honor X.”

(Conquest Tour: San Antonio)- 4/23- “The Bitter End II” In addition to the end of the Page vs. Whitmer feud, we had Ferrara make a great comeback but still fall short, MCMG defeat Addiction in their match but then get jumped afterwards and Sabin taken out, and Jay Briscoe should have won the semi-main event but got screwed because the ref was out, and Lethal wound up getting the win in the end, robbing Briscoe of the title shot he would have gotten if he had won.

(Conquest Tour: West Warwick)- 4/30- “Revenge.” The Addiction got it on Lio Rush after their match, Silas got it on Cheeseburger, Dijak got it on Daddiego, and ANX was looking for some against the Bucks.

(Global Wars 2016)- 5/8- I REALLY want to call this show “Invasion.” It obviously applies to the ending of the show, you but can easily disguise that by saying it refers to all of the Japanese talent coming in and to Ishii having the TV Title. The problem is that WWE might own the trademark even though their show was stylized as “InVasion.” If you can’t call this show “Invasion” then maybe you could get New Japan to agree to let you call this show “Invasion Attack: USA” for the same reasons (and maybe this will garner some interest for it in Japan as well).

(War of the Worlds Tour: Dearborn)- 5/9- between the Adam Page joining Bullet Club and the finish of the reDRagon vs. Ingobernables de Japon match, I’d call this show “Divided We Fall” (which also references a show from the spring of 2007 called United We Stand which was named in part because on that show Bryan and Nigel had to put aside their differences to represent ROH against a Japanese promotion). This name also more subtly references War Machine losing the tag titles when Hanson was happy to accept Addiction’s challenge for a tag title match in New York but Rowe said he wanted the match later tonight, and War Machine wound up losing because this was their third big match in 24 hours), and also to Sydal and ACH amicably agreeing to end their team. They were winning a lot while they were together, but now that they are separating will either of them continue this success as a singles wrestler?

(War of the Worlds Tour: Toronto)- 5/11- both being in Canada and having a second Canadian on it in Kenny Omega gives this show a slightly more “Global” feel than the others so it gets to be “Global Wars 2016.”

(War of the Worlds Tour: New York)- 5/14- I like the War of the Worlds name for this show because of the ROH vs. Bullet Club vs. CHAOS main event, so that (plus the other New Japan involvement) makes this show “War of the Worlds 2016.”

(Road to Best in the World 2016: Collinsville)- 6/3- This show had quite a few relative newcomers to ROH having great showings against established ROH stars, Caprice Coleman wanted to prove that he was being overlooked, Stevie Richards wanted to prove he can go at an ROH level, and ACH wanted to prove that Silas Young’s claims about him are false. Therefore I would call this show “Something To Prove.”

(Road to Best in the World 2016: Indianapolis)- 6/4- “Circle City Shootout,” because Indianapolis is apparently called “The Circle City” and the main event was the Motor City Machine Guns vs. Bullet Club (and also the Briscoes were in two other top matches, and their entrance music has gunshots in it) so… I did the best I could to avoid giving this generic show a completely generic name.

(Road to Best in the World 2016: Columbus)- 6/5- Jay Briscoe, Jay Lethal, and Lio Rush all had matches built around injuries they suffered at last night’s show, I’d call this show “Through The Pain,” as in ‘they were fighting through the pain’ but just calling it “Through The Pain” sounds cooler.

(Road to Best in the World 2016: Hopkins)- 6/11- If you’re doing your Tag Wars tournament this weekend, why not call this “Tag Wars 2016: Night 1”?

(Road to Best in the World 2016: Milwaukee)- 6/12- same as above, except it’d obviously be “Tag Wars 2016: Night 2.”

(Best in the World 2016)- 6/24- keep it.

(Aftershock Tour: Baltimore)- 7/8- Between the Jay Briscoe, Jay Lethal, & Colt Cabana vs. Bullet Club main event and the Silas Young vs. ACH blow-off (plus some other matches on the card that technically qualify like ANX vs. Ferrara & Cheeseburger), I think this would be a perfect time to whip out “Night of the Grudges III.”

(Death Before Dishonor XIV)- 8/19- got to keep it.

(Field of Honor 2016)- 8/27- also got to keep it.

(Reloaded Tour: Pittsburgh)- 9/16- there were a lot of young or new guys getting wins on this show over established veterans and a lot of putting over young guys on commentary, so I’ll call this show “The Future Is Now II.”

(Reloaded Tour: Duluth)- 9/24- There were lots of different styles of wrestling showcased on this show and I can’t think of anything better, so this show will be “A Wrestling Exhibition.”

(All-Star Extravaganza VIII) 9/30- just like every year, what ROH is now calling All-Star Extravaganza should be that year’s Glory By Honor. In this case, “Glory By Honor XV.”

(Glory By Honor XV)- 10/14- Bullet Club lost all of their matches tonight, including against rivals like Fish, O’Reilly, and Lethal, so this show will be “Revenge on the Bullet Club” (a reference to 2003’s Revenge on the Prophecy).

(Road to Final Battle 2016: Ft. Lauderdale)- 10/21- Between the Wild Card Challenge main event, the wild Four Corner Survival, the wildlife in the Page vs. Castle match (okay, that’s a stretch. It was someone’s pet dog), the wild post-match occurrences after the Bull James vs. Adam Cole match, and the supposedly exciting changes in the card, I’d call this show “Wild.”

(Road to Final Battle 2016: Lakeland)- 10/22- I’d call this show “Earning Respect,” mostly due to Silas’ performance in the main event, but also the way the Cabinet see their own actions, as well as White and Shelley still wanting a match when they could have just taken a forfeit victory, plus the performance from the undercard tag guys in their own match, which was a step above what they are usually allowed to have.

(Survival of the Fittest 2016: Night 1)- 11/3- keep it

(Survival of the Fittest 2016: Night 2)- 11/4- keep it

(Reach for the Sky Tour: Liverpool)- 11/18- I’m feeling lazy right now, so this show can be “Back in the UK.” You know… like Back in the USSR.

2017
(Undisputed Legacy)- 2/3- I’m not even sure what this name means. I assume that the “Legacy” part is because they’re in Texas and Cody is Dusty’s son and Dusty was from Texas, but what’s with the “undisputed” part? Has someone been going around claiming that Dusty isn’t Cody’s real father and this issue is getting settled tonight? Even the “legacy” part of this doesn’t work anywhere near as well now that Cody is a cheating heel rather than a babyface whose actions, words or moves resemble those of his father in any way.
This was a generic, middling show so it deserves a generic, middling name: “Texas Turmoil.”

(Honor Reigns Supreme)- 2/4- Honor Reigns Supreme? Are you kidding me? On a show with one interference finish, a semi-main event where the heels purposely get DQed to keep their titles and a main event full of interference and ref bumps in which the babyfaces act like heels (including purposely getting themselves DQed in one of the falls by assaulting the heels with chairs in an attempt to gain an unfair advantage for the following fall)? “Dishonorable Conduct” is more like it.

(The Experience)- 2/12- I get what they were going for with this name, but it feels a bit too generic to me (which is a feeling that is only added to by the extremely generic names that Delirious has given the shows that he actually does decide to name that aren’t sequel names). This show was billed as “the most interactive show in ROH’s history” with the gimmick being that fans would get to vote things like stipulations and participants, so why not just hit the nail on the head and call this show “Interactive?”

(Honor Rising 2017: Night 1)- 2/26- New Japan knows their market best. If they think it’s working then there is no need to change it.

(Honor Rising 2017: Night 2)- 2/27- Same as above

(Manhattan Mayhem VI)- 3/4- While not up to the very high in-ring standards of the previous five events to bear this name, this show was still very good, and definitely fulfilled the “Mayhem” part more than pretty much any previous edition has.

(Unauthorized)- 4/28- this is a weird one, as the show itself feels like it belongs under the “ROH Unauthorized” label that they had previously given to A Night of Hoopla and Michael Bennett’s Bachelor Party, but unlike those shows, it seems like I’m supposed to consider this one as part of continuity, so I wouldn’t want to call it that. Instead maybe I’d go with “Out of Control.” The idea is the similar, but it avoids any possible confusion (which there was a lot of during the build-up to the show over this very issue).

(Masters of the Craft)- 4/29- I’d call this show “Hometown Heroes” due to the number of Milwaukee-area guys in what were (theoretically) big matches for them (Beer City Bruiser vs. Lethal, Silas Young vs. Bully Ray, and Ken Anderson making his ROH debut in a TV Title match, plus Taven, who the Milwaukee crowd has kind of adopted as one of their own due to that stupid promo where he promised to buy them all shots back at Raising The Bar: Night 1, facing off against Cole in what was theoretically Taven finally beating Cole and thus proving that his version of the Kingdom is more than just a second-rate knockoff of Cole’s).

(War of the Worlds Tour 2017: Toronto) 5/7- “Global Wars 2017.” Unlike the rest of the this tour, this one is in Canada and has the Canadian Kenny Omega on it, while the other tours on this show don’t, so I’d have this be this year’s incarnation of Global Wars due to being more "global". As for what I do with the other joint tours this year… stay tuned.

(War of the Worlds Tour 2017: Dearborn) 5/9- There are lots of different factions facing off tonight (Rebellion vs. Search & Destroy, LIJ vs. Briscoes & Bully, the big Bullet Club vs. CHAOS main event, plus some of the other bigger matches on this show feature Daniels from The Addiction taking on The Kingdom’s Matt Taven, Tanahashi and Lethal having to team up to face War machine because neither of them have partners in ROH, and Naito facing Punishment Martinez in a match that stemmed from Martinez not getting along with Naito’s LIJ faction when they teamed up earlier this year on the Honor Rising tour. Therefore, I will give this show the name “Faction Warfare” in an attempt to hopefully make that name feel less generic than it sounds.

(War of the Worlds 2017)- 5/12- Keep it.

(Road to Best in the World 2017)- 6/3- This was half a regular ROH show and half TV tapings, with nothing important happening, so just keep the generic name.

(Gateway to the Gold)- 6/4- Keep it. The main thrust of this show was the Gateway to the Gold gauntlet for an ROH World title shot, so there is no reason to call the show anything else.

(Best in the World 2017)- 6/23- Keep it. (Although Cody winning the belt and beginning his reign of “I can’t believe it’s not even mediocre” would also deserve the name “Black Friday.”)

(War of the Worlds UK Tour: London)- 8/18- The fact that, for the first time, we are getting ROH, New Japan, CMLL, and RevPro all involved together for the first time, I’d have called this show “Global Wrestling Summit in London.” This is a step forward in the alliance of these four promotions, and the old “War of the Worlds” or “Global Wars” names that have been applied to joint shows merely between ROH and New Japan or RevPro and New Japan are therefore smaller than the name this historic series of shows needs.

(Death Before Dishonor XV)- 9/22- Keep it (or, alternatively, “Please Shoot Take The Title From Him, Mr. Suzuki”).

(Global Wars 2017: Buffalo)- 10/12- I was pretty stuck on this one. I was thinking of calling this show “Stepping Up” or something to that effect because of the number of guys who felt like they took a step up on this show, either in kayfabe or out of it (everyone from Hiromu facing former mentor Christopher Daniels to The Kingdom as a unit in the main event, and especially Ospreay and Martinez in their match, but it can even be applied to guys like Coast 2 Coast in their opening effort against The Dawgs), but with tomorrow’s showing being “Proving Ground 2017,” I figured it was best to step away from that. Another idea I had was “Back in the USA” to reference both Omega’s return to US as well as a play on the “Back in the UK” name I used last year, but that’s a really not vey good, so I think the best name for this show is to give it the “WATCH THIS MATCH!” treatment and go ahead and call this “Ospreay vs. Martinez.” Not only is that match worthy of the rare accolade of having the show named solely after it, but it really helps push Martinez as someone capable of delivering that caliber of match, which is going to be important if they want to build around him in the future.
(Yes, there were other great matches on this show, like KUSHIDA vs. Page and the main event, but the Jacobs vs. Shelley I Quit match was on the undercard of Joe vs. Punk II, so the precedent is there.)

(Global Wars 2017: Pittsburgh)- 10/13- Silas tries to prove himself against Minoru Suzuki, Jay white tries to prove himself against Jay Lethal, O’Ryan & Marseglia get the chance to prove they can deliver in their tag title shot, and there was a Proving Ground Instant Reward match, so this show makes sense as “Proving Ground 2017.”

(Global Wars 2017: Columbus)- 10/14- This show deserves to be called “Suffocation II.” That is an accurate description of how I felt watching it, and the sequel title will hopefully serve to warn people away from this dreadful experience, which joins, last year’s Glory By Honor, Conquest Tour: West Warwick, and the original Suffocation (along with a few others who I have fortunately repressed from my memory) at the absolute bottom of the barrel.

(Global Wars 2017: Chicago)- 10/14- “The Omega Effect II.” The Omega Effect was the name of the show in which Kenny Omega had his last major title match in ROH before tonight, and it also, of course, references the fact that Kenny was the one who drew the house here tonight, setting a new ROH attendance record in one of (historically) their biggest markets.

(Soaring Eagle Cup)- 10/28- Got to keep it, simply because there’s not much else you can call this one.

(Elite)- 11/11- I’d just call this show “A Little Thing Called Whatever We Want” because, loathe as I am to turn Vinny Marseglia’s horrific catchphrase into a show name, this show really felt like it was the wrestlers just doing whatever they felt like doing, both in kayfabe and out of it. Stuff like the random comedy in the middle of matches or Cody and Rocky just deciding to have their match be a weapons match or The Dawgs ruining Cheeseburger’s match just because and Hanson becoming Cheeseburger’s partner for no other reason than he wasn’t otherwise booked but still wanted to wrestle. It’s getting kind of hard to come up with good names for shows when at least 80% of the matches on the card feel totally random and pointless.

(Survival of the Fittest 2017: Night 1)- 11/17- Keep it. As long as SOTF is going to be multiple nights (even though it shouldn’t be), this is what we’re going to call these shows.

Big Red Machine wrote:
2014
(Wrestling’s Finest)- 1/25- “Opportunity.” We have the Top Prospect Tournament Finals where someone will earn a TV Title shot, an actual TV Title match, and the main event where someone will earn a world title shot if they pin Cole. Add to that the fact that an injury to Roddy and travel problems for Paul London meant that Cedric Alexander and Andrew Everett were given a chance to steal the show (and almost did so), and I think the title fits fine. Certainly a lot better than the generic “Wrestling’s Finest”i like the idea about your title, but the name lacks something, i'd suggest something like "take it or leave it" "take your spot" something more substantial. However, I could have gone with something like "Return of the King" or "A Hero's Welcome" or something like that since it was the return Hero show (not counting the Jan 4 show)

(Raising the Bar: Night 2)- 3/8- “Masters of the Ring”- yeah, it sounds corny, but this show had a Ringmaster’s Challenge on it, and it also plays into both the tag title change and the fact that this was Adam Page’s first night as The Decade’s young boy (obeying his new masters).Similar to 1/25, i'd play around with Hero's title shot since we can't change the name of the anniversary show, this could be "King's Court"

(Glory By Honor XIII)- 11/15- “Home is Where the Heat Is”- of the three wrestlers for whom San Antonio is a sort of home market (ACH, R.D. Evans, & Raymond Rowe), two were used in heat-getting angles, and two of them got titles shots, which the crowd was super-hot for.I'd just give it more of a Texas theme and go with "Lone Star Rebellion" or something along those lines

(Flyin’ High)- 3/22- keep it. It’s a cool name and it had AJ Styles on it. Also, I’m sure other guys did cool dives, too.If there was ever one, i think this show deserved the "name vs name" title with "Hero vs Styles". It was their first time in ROH, dream match of the biggest guys in the indies and new homecoming.

Big Red Machine wrote:
2014
(Wrestling’s Finest)- 1/25- “Opportunity.” We have the Top Prospect Tournament Finals where someone will earn a TV Title shot, an actual TV Title match, and the main event where someone will earn a world title shot if they pin Cole. Add to that the fact that an injury to Roddy and travel problems for Paul London meant that Cedric Alexander and Andrew Everett were given a chance to steal the show (and almost did so), and I think the title fits fine. Certainly a lot better than the generic “Wrestling’s Finest”i like the idea about your title, but the name lacks something, i'd suggest something like "take it or leave it" "take your spot" something more substantial. However, I could have gone with something like "Return of the King" or "A Hero's Welcome" or something like that since it was the return Hero show (not counting the Jan 4 show) "Take It or Leave It" is good.
You have no idea how that Janaury 4th show screwed sh*t up because I was all set to call this show "It All Begins II" because so many things got kicked off in one form or another, but then I realized that most of them really started on 1/4.

(Raising the Bar: Night 2)- 3/8- “Masters of the Ring”- yeah, it sounds corny, but this show had a Ringmaster’s Challenge on it, and it also plays into both the tag title change and the fact that this was Adam Page’s first night as The Decade’s young boy (obeying his new masters).Similar to 1/25, i'd play around with Hero's title shot since we can't change the name of the anniversary show, this could be "King's Court" The "King" gimmick was a KOW thing, not a Hero thing. I also like to avoid naming shows in such a way that they really only describe one match if possible, for reasons I'll get into below.

(Glory By Honor XIII)- 11/15- “Home is Where the Heat Is”- of the three wrestlers for whom San Antonio is a sort of home market (ACH, R.D. Evans, & Raymond Rowe), two were used in heat-getting angles, and two of them got titles shots, which the crowd was super-hot for.I'd just give it more of a Texas theme and go with "Lone Star Rebellion" or something along those linesI felt like I was really shafting Texas will all of the "We're in Texas" names. I also hate using words like "rebellion" unless they actually make sense for the show.

(Flyin’ High)- 3/22- keep it. It’s a cool name and it had AJ Styles on it. Also, I’m sure other guys did cool dives, too.If there was ever one, i think this show deserved the "name vs name" title with "Hero vs Styles". It was their first time in ROH, dream match of the biggest guys in the indies and new homecoming. The thing with show names that reference one and only one match on the show is that ROH has done a great job of keeping them pretty sacred. Not counting shows that are named in advance because of an annual match like Champions vs. All-Stars and SOTF, or because of some other match like off the top of my head there are three Epic Encounters, two Tag Title Classics, World Title Classic, Champions' Challenge, Battle of the Icons,, Joe vs. Punk II, Joe vs. Kobashi, and Aries vs. Richards, and almost all of those matches have been utterly fantastic. Battle of the Icons wasn't, the others were all awesome... and even with that, I'd still consider Champions' Challenge and Epic Encounter II to be unworthy of the honor. I'd not something I'd want to take the chance of diluting. If the match was amazing, I'd definitely call it "Hero vs. Styles," but it wasn't.

(Flyin’ High)- 3/22- keep it. It’s a cool name and it had AJ Styles on it. Also, I’m sure other guys did cool dives, too.If there was ever one, i think this show deserved the "name vs name" title with "Hero vs Styles". It was their first time in ROH, dream match of the biggest guys in the indies and new homecoming. The thing with show names that reference one and only one match on the show is that ROH has done a great job of keeping them pretty sacred. Not counting shows that are named in advance because of an annual match like Champions vs. All-Stars and SOTF, or because of some other match like off the top of my head there are three Epic Encounters, two Tag Title Classics, World Title Classic, Champions' Challenge, Battle of the Icons,, Joe vs. Punk II, Joe vs. Kobashi, and Aries vs. Richards, and almost all of those matches have been utterly fantastic. Battle of the Icons wasn't, the others were all awesome... and even with that, I'd still consider Champions' Challenge and Epic Encounter II to be unworthy of the honor. I'd not something I'd want to take the chance of diluting. If the match was amazing, I'd definitely call it "Hero vs. Styles," but it wasn't.

yeah, i agree with you, i think the match was still one of the highlights of the show, but i think it was more than the show was fairly bad altogether. I just think that the big names involved could easily sell your show/dvd

(Flyin’ High)- 3/22- keep it. It’s a cool name and it had AJ Styles on it. Also, I’m sure other guys did cool dives, too.If there was ever one, i think this show deserved the "name vs name" title with "Hero vs Styles". It was their first time in ROH, dream match of the biggest guys in the indies and new homecoming. The thing with show names that reference one and only one match on the show is that ROH has done a great job of keeping them pretty sacred. Not counting shows that are named in advance because of an annual match like Champions vs. All-Stars and SOTF, or because of some other match like off the top of my head there are three Epic Encounters, two Tag Title Classics, World Title Classic, Champions' Challenge, Battle of the Icons,, Joe vs. Punk II, Joe vs. Kobashi, and Aries vs. Richards, and almost all of those matches have been utterly fantastic. Battle of the Icons wasn't, the others were all awesome... and even with that, I'd still consider Champions' Challenge and Epic Encounter II to be unworthy of the honor. I'd not something I'd want to take the chance of diluting. If the match was amazing, I'd definitely call it "Hero vs. Styles," but it wasn't.

yeah, i agree with you, i think the match was still one of the highlights of the show, but i think it was more than the show was fairly bad altogether. I just think that the big names involved could easily sell your show/dvd

But they'll do that anyway by just being on the cover.
And it's not that the match wasn't one of the best on the show. It's just not even close to being in the same league as the other X vs. Y matches.

Bumped for update from Conquest Tour: Chicago through Road to Best in the World 2015: Oklahoma City. I'm planning on watching the Collinsville show tonight or tomorrow so I'll probably update that soon, too.

It appears that ROH will be continuing with their dumb and repetitive "tour" names going into 2016, even for names that make no sense like the "Conquest" tour.
This lazy booking and lack of an effort to do anything to make the individual shows feel special (those lazy poster-covers have got to go) has got to be killing DVD sales. If you're going to run the shows and sell the DVDs, then at least make an effort to make them appealing.

i'm starting to be ok with the 'road to' or 'tour' names since they're just tv tapings, but the names suck, "Winter Warrios" sounds like a Magic starter pack for god's sake. Just make everything 'Road to" next thing show

cero2k wrote:i'm starting to be ok with the 'road to' or 'tour' names since they're just tv tapings, but the names suck, "Winter Warrios" sounds like a Magic starter pack for god's sake. Just make everything 'Road to" next thing show

They're not all just TV tapings, though. If they were saving those names for the TV Tapings, I'd be fine with that.
By my count, ROH did 44 shows last year.
12 TV Tapings
6 PPVs/iPPVs
7 other named shows
That leaves 19 of the 32 non-TV tapings shows that were just named: "Road to PPV/XYZ Tour: City."

There were 37 regular shows in 2009. Off the top of my head, I was able to correctly remember the main events of 29 of them, with a further four that I confused the main with the semi-main. There are shows from this year that I have trouble remembering the main events from, and the reason for that is that I have no name to associate the main event with, and I sure as hell can't tell you the undercards from anything this year that wasn't a PPV, ROH/NJPW show or Field of Honor, but I can still do that from shows in 2009). It might seem like this is just me getting annoyed that I don't have freaky memory powers anymore, but it is more than that. The individualized names (and the events that happen that correspond to them) create a unique connection in the fans' minds. I remember shows from 2009 fondly even if I haven't watched them in years, but this will only happen if something is done to distinguish those shows. How long do you think it will be before everyone forgets that it was Conquest Tour: Milwaukee that both gave us our first big step towards Lethal vs. Briscoe at the next PPV and also set the seeds for Lethal vs. Kyle at the PPV after that? I'd give it another year at most. Just like people aren't going to remember that Samoa Joe was around for that show. But if they had called it Champions' Challenge II (which shouldn't have been a stretch to think of because they already tag-lined the Lethal & Briscoe vs. reDRagon match that during the hype), no one would forget it. Just like no one will forget that the original Champions' Challenge was the first time the world champ and TV champ ever faced off one-on-one.

I also can't stand the almost counter-intuitive ways they divide them up. The Winter Warriors Tour goes from the beginning of the year until the Anniversary Show, which is between late February and mid-March. Fine. Then why doesn't the Conquest Tour go until the next PPV? Why does the Summer Heat Tour stop in the middle of the summer? If PPVs are supposed to be the big shows, then why is the Reloaded Tour on both sides of All-Star Extravaganza?

This is made even more frustrating by the fact that, for a lot of these shows, they could have avoided situations like this while also pushing some of the house shows (especially the storyline-significant ones) as more important by giving them their own names. The Conquest Tour last year was only five shows: two TV tapings and three house shows (two of which were very storyline-significant and the other was mildly so, but also had a dream match in Joe vs. Elgin on it). Name the three shows (I've suggested names in the original post), call the taping that set up SCOH "Road to Supercard of Honor" and the one after SCOH "Supercard of Honor: Fallout" or something like that. It's that simple.
Same thing could have been done for the Aftershock Tour. It was only three shows: the post-BITW TV Taping, Hopkins, and Vegas (which was very storyline-significant). Call the taping either BITW Aftermath or Road to DBD, and give Hopkins and Vegas names (and if you want to be lazy about Hopkins, just call it "Minnesota Madness" or "Twin Cites Tumult something like that).

The combination of lack of names and lack of actual meaning on most of the house shows (and also the lack of effort put into the DVDs themselves) hurts DVD/VOD sales, but it also takes away that special feel. I understand the desire to not be seen as indy wrestling, but there are some aspects of indy wrestling that you can keep around, and which will help differentiate your produt from WWE/TNA.

I can't disagree with anything there, all year last year I was under the idea that any non-named show was feeding the TV show. This is also helping me understand some people I know that have a lot of trouble following ROH just with the TV/PPV

cero2k wrote:I can't disagree with anything there, all year last year I was under the idea that any non-named show was feeding the TV show. This is also helping me understand some people I know that have a lot of trouble following ROH just with the TV/PPV

With the exception of the Vegas show (and particularly Kyle making Lethal tap), I thought they did a good job of making sure that storyline-relevant stuff from those shows did air on TV. Maybe the Elgin "face turn" in Amarillo should have aired on TV, too, but that whole storyline was so poorly-executed that the whole idea that Elgin turned face during that match almost seems more like something fans have found to better explain the storyline than it does something that was put there by the booker for the purposes of it being important to the story... but that all just shows how poorly the house shows are being used: the hardest of the hardcore who watch every show still aren't clear on exactly what events have led to some important storyline developments. It's like Delirious is telling us "this is the general gist of what is going on" but then doesn't fill in the details. We understand what they are trying to get at, but it doesn't feel as genuine. It's exposition rather than a series of events we see for ourselves.

cero2k wrote:I can't disagree with anything there, all year last year I was under the idea that any non-named show was feeding the TV show. This is also helping me understand some people I know that have a lot of trouble following ROH just with the TV/PPV

With the exception of the Vegas show (and particularly Kyle making Lethal tap), I thought they did a good job of making sure that storyline-relevant stuff from those shows did air on TV. Maybe the Elgin "face turn" in Amarillo should have aired on TV, too, but that whole storyline was so poorly-executed that the whole idea that Elgin turned face during that match almost seems more like something fans have found to better explain the storyline than it does something that was put there by the booker for the purposes of it being important to the story... but that all just shows how poorly the house shows are being used: the hardest of the hardcore who watch every show still aren't clear on exactly what events have led to some important storyline developments. It's like Delirious is telling us "this is the general gist of what is going on" but then doesn't fill in the details. We understand what they are trying to get at, but it doesn't feel as genuine. It's exposition rather than a series of events we see for ourselves.

the two things i saw myself explaining the most last year was that matches had already been signed/announced or that such and such said something in a promo. I think we that follow show by show, it's easier for us to follow since we see the progress on how they book shows, but when watching TV for instance, the Castle vs Young was suuper disconnected because you were not seeing the progress each show. Or for instance, I still have no idea why Shelley tagged with ACH and Sydal at Final Battle.